Axle-box fob bailboad-cabs



Patented May 31, 1 859.

I Witnesses= v I Inventor:

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEVI STEVENS, OF FITOHBURG, MASSACHUSETTS.

AXLE-BOX FOR RAILROAD-CARS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 24,245, dated May 3 1, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

)Be it known that I, LEVI STEVENS, of Fitchburg, in the county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and Improved Antifriction-Box for the Axles of Railroad-Car Wheels, of which the followin is a full, clear, and exact de scription, reference being had to the accom-' panying drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a view of my improved box. Fig. 2 a longitudinal vertical section through the same. Fig. 3 a view of the shell or backing of harder metal. Fig. 4; a section through the box showing the position which it occupies on the axle.

The boxes which support the journals of rail road car wheels have been made of bronze with a recess formed in them, into which an anti-friction metal'has been run; but to this box there exists the objection that the soft metal is liable when heated by the friction of the rapidly revolving axle (as it melts at a low temperature) to be softened and thrown out of the box which contains it. Other boxes have been made entirely of soft metal (or a composition of zinc, copper and tin) which could be produced at a much less cost than the bronze box; but these boxes were found not to be sufficiently strong to resist the strain and concussions to which they were subjected when applied to the axles of rail road cars, as the weight in such lower or bearing surface of the box of av metal possessing the requisite anti-friction properties, and at the same time melting at a high temperature; and the upper part of the box of a metal which shall possess the requisite strength to enable it to sustain the weight imposed upon it, the hard metal be ing allowed to project down through the anti-friction alloy and rest upon the journal.

That others skilled in the art may understand and use my invention I will proceed to describe the manner in which I have carried out the same.

A shell or backing A shown detached in Fig. 3 is cast of bronze (or other suitable metal), it has short studs or projections a tion which I employ is eighty parts of zinc to twenty parts of tin; which I have found to answer the desired purpose, this composition forms a superior anti-friction metal which does not melt at so low a temperature as to render it liable to be softened by the heating of the journals of rail road car wheels. These proportions however are not strictly rigid and may be somewhat varied. The studs a, b, 0, support the box B at the points where it is liable to the greatest strain or concussion, the piece Z) steadying and guiding the vertical motions of the box in its housings; the studs 0 at the ends of the box in conjunction with the ends of the shell itself, receive the percussions communicated horizontally to the box in the direction of the axis of the journal, and protect the softer metal from being worn by v these side concussions.

The box B is cast of such a thickness in the middle that the tops of the studs 0 are level with the surface on which the journal runs; this allows the box to rest on the journal at these points, so that any heavy percussion or strain which may be applied to the box in a vertical direction at m Fig. 4, and which would tend to crush or split the box B will be resisted by the shell A and transmitted directly to 'the journal, without causing too great a strain upon the antifriction metal.

I do not confine myself to the use of the V not to be softened and thrown out by the heat of the revolving axle, neither do I confine myself to the exact number and position of the studs or blocks a, which project from the case through the antifriction metal, but intend to vary the box in this respect as may be required by the different circumstances under which it is employed. 

